The present invention is directed to an improvement to an existing cellular telephone system, which improvement has a monitoring and control circuit which inhibits the transmission of cell phone communications when the cell phone user is on a highway, in a restricted location such as a hospital treatment room, a court room and the like, or in a user pre-registered location.
The invention is further directed to a monitoring and control circuit which detects permissible highway cell phone use under hands-free operation, but which may also inhibit cell phone use under severe driving conditions even with hands-free operation.
Modern cellular telephones (cell phones) are so small and portable that users can carry them in their pockets and use them anywhere, even while operating a motor vehicle.
Studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the United States Department of Transportation have shown that automotive driver attention is distracted when holding and using a cell phone. It is estimated that as many as 40 percent of the drivers presently use cell phones while driving. The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety reported to the NHTSA estimates of between 4000 and 8000 traffic accidents per day caused by distracted drivers. The New England Journal of Medicine has reported a study which found that cell phone use while driving quadrupled the risk of an accident and was almost as dangerous as being drunk behind the wheel.
Municipalities are beginning to enact anti-cell phone driving ordinances. Several states are considering passing anti-cell phone driving motor vehicle laws. Certain civil rights activists are pressing for individual freedoms to continue motor vehicle cell phone use. It is anticipated that many years may pass before the issues involved with anti-cell phone motor vehicle laws are settled. Even with laws in place, the ability of police enforcement will always be a concern.
Modern digital cellular telephones (cell phones) can contain Global Positioning System (GPS) circuitry imbedded on the basic circuit board. This GPS circuitry determines the latitude and longitude location of the cell phone circuitry, from navigation system signals received from a satellite system developed as part of the United States Department of Defense NAVSTAR program. This GPS location information which can be available to digital cell phone transmission circuitry has in the past, because of government restrictions on the NAVSTAR satellite system, had a locating accuracy in excess of 20 feet.
Various databases for roadway locations are available from such sources as Rand McNally Company, Microsoft Inc., and others. These databases contain the location description of each roadway in the United States by latitude and longitude.
The U.S. Weather Service and regional weather centers make severe weather information available to the public according to GPS locations.
Additionally, restricted wireless commerce locations exist where cellular phone operation is prohibited. These include transportation equipment with highly sensitive equipment, i.e. air planes and super-speed trains, court rooms, religious services, hospital treatment rooms, prison cells and penitentiary grounds, high risk manufacturing locations, and the like. A cell user may also select to have his calls inhibited on a time delegated basis, such as from 12 midnight to 6 am.
Further, each cell phone can be programmed to place a predetermined medical alert call, such as those placed by present personally worn medical alert systems. This medical alert transmission would include a coded xe2x80x9chelpxe2x80x9d message and the GPS location of the cell phone user.
It is desirable, therefore, to address cellular phone use from a scientific approach. This includes for each intended cellular transmission the determination of restricted activity or restricted location on a time and/or GPS location basis. With proper cell phone blocker equipment, automobile insurance companies and other industries would be free to grant vehicle insurance premium reductions, workman compensation insurance reductions, just as they now do with auto alarm systems, auto air bags, building fire and theft detection systems and other such safety systems.
It is secondly desirable to utilize digital cell phone GPS information, roadway GPS information and weather information to inhibit the ability to make cell phone calls while on a roadway in severe weather.
It is also desirable to inhibit telephone transmission at the local communications server with cell phones being used on the roadway in the absence of a hands-free operation, and at other predetermined restricted locations or at predetermined restricted times.
It is further desirable to incorporate monitoring and control circuitry into each cell tower communications server to compare cell phone GPS location with roadway location information when a cell phone call is being made.
It is also further desirable to incorporate a hands-free operation indicator signal which will permit cell phone transmission while on the highway in the absence of severe weather information.
The purpose of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a transmission inhibit for digital hand-held cell phones when at specified highway locations and specified other restricted locations or during specified restricted times.
The objectives of the present invention are realized in an improvement to a cellular telephone system, which incorporates a transmission inhibit system for cell phones being used at specific highway locations and at other specific restricted locations or at elected locations. The restricted locations include those where electric transmissions create a safety hazard, or where cell phone use is prohibited. Such locations may include hospitals, court rooms, penitentiaries, manufacturing locations, religious services, and the like.
A high resolution global positioning system (GPS) circuit is incorporated into a cell phone unit to provide high definition GPS location information. The accuracy of the information provided by this GPS circuit is to within 10 feet or less of actual position.
Each cell phone control signal header is configured to include this GPS location information and other information, including an indicator of the use of a hands-free adaptor (HFA). Each cell base station communications server includes monitoring and control software (MCS). When a cell communications server processes a request for a call, the MCS intercepts the cell phone control signal header information, and analyses it for cell phone condition, GPS location, HFA indicator signal bit presence, xe2x80x9c911xe2x80x9d emergency priority status, medical alert status, restricted time status, and the priority of the transmission processing for the call.
Emergency calls, i.e. xe2x80x9c911xe2x80x9d calls and medical alert calls are connected directly to the transmission channel after a valid cell phone serial number is detected.
For all other calls, the cell phone reported GPS location is compared against each of the stored databases for highway location codes, other restricted location codes, restricted time codes, and elected location codes. When the GPS location of the cell phone is a highway location the HFA indicator bit is searched.
A cell phone call place to or from an on-the-highway location, or with another location in a restricted data base, is rejected and an inhibit message is broadcast before disconnect. Incoming rejected calls can be stored in a temporary xe2x80x9cmail boxxe2x80x9d for each cell phone by telephone number, time and date. Mail boxes are callable from the cell phone. The size of the mail box is determined by a cellular user.
Weather Bureau severe weather reports are compared against the reported GPS location. If the cell phone is determined to be in HFA operation but in a severe weather region, the cell call may be inhibited and a severe weather warning is broadcast.
The monitoring and control circuitry operates on monitoring and control software (MCS) at the cell station communications server location. The system may be configured with one main server and (MCS) location, implemented with a server bank of identical units for increasingly heavier demand. Or the system may be configured as needed with regional servers having regionally positioned monitoring and control circuitry and MCS. When regional servers are employed, the various databases are cached regionally with central or national archiving. Each database storage unit can contain its own control software to reorganize its priority levels of stored information as a function of percentage of use.
A hybrid database storage system will also work. Here data requests are routed to a central storage location which contains duplicate servers to handle increased demand. Frequently requested data many be duplicated and distributed to regional storage. A request for data first looks locally and then nationally for data.
The MCS can be implemented in software compatible with the hardware in which it resides. C language and C++ language are common implementations. The MCS connects all valid calls which are not from on-the-highway locations, or which are from such highway locations, but from HFA units and without severe weather issues.
Each cell phone""s microprocessor may be connected to a hands free adaptor (HFA) to receive voice activated preprogrammed dial (VA PPD) information and to activate and deactivate the cell phone operation at preprogrammed voice commands.
A microprocessor driven high resolution GPS circuit is mounted in the cell phone and uses the same antenna as the cell phone telephone transmission circuit. The cell phone microprocessor is programmed to operate from the HFA and to provide a HFA indicator bit. This information, as well as GPS information, is processed by the cell phone protocol encoder/decoder communications processor. A cellular digital packet data (CDPD) modem interfaces the cell unit""s communications processor and its transmitter/receiver.
Cell towers which service restricted areas such as prisons and manufacturing facilities may have their controllers programmed to inhibit all transmissions with cell phones which do not provide GPS location information, or inhibit all transmissions with cell phones whose telephone number is not approved, such as the prison warden and the manufacturing executive officer, whose calls would not be inhibited.